Business Improvement is a collection of disciplined change methodologies, which help in gaining a sufficient understanding of a situation to assure, with an adequate degree of confidence, that a change will result in the expected level of benefits. This page aims to demystify improvement and examines the distinction between what is and is not “business improvement”.

Dr Deming was an American statistician and management consultant, remembered for his contribution to the success of post-war Japan. Perhaps the most important idea he taught was not a tool or a prescription but a different way to think about business, or as he wrote, “a map of theory by which to understand the organizations that we work in”, which Deming called the System of Profound Knowledge.

A purposeful system is a set of interacting or interdependent components forming an integrated whole, working towards a common purpose. Systems thinking is a collection of skills and formal methods for examining and understanding systems.

Business excellence is a foundation for competitive advantage, continuous improvement and sustainable change. More specifically, it is “a holistic paradigm of knowledge and practices, aimed at the sustainable improvement of business outcomes by integrating rather than compromising between the interdependent interests of customers, employees and the business.”